


In a Galaxy Not So Far Away

by celeste9



Category: Primeval, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Background Relationships, Crack, Crossover, Dinosaurs, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Movie Night, Plotty, Team Dynamics, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 13:55:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6706933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Becker has accepted that his life is crazy and that crazy things happen around him. However, he is definitely not prepared for the three people who come through an anomaly to be aliens, especially not aliens that Connor insists are from Star Wars. Star Wars isn't real.</p>
<p>Eventually even Becker stops believing that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In a Galaxy Not So Far Away

**Author's Note:**

> This is my fic for the April crossover challenge on h/c bingo, using my given prompts (burns, fighting, bites, hospital stay - I think I managed 2.5 out of 4). Thank you to deinonychus_1 for doing the beta on this crazy thing, and to clea2011 for suggesting how to overcome the language barrier; she's probably sorry she encouraged me. *g*

The day started out like any other. Becker hesitated to use the word ‘normal’ because nothing about his life working at the ARC could ever be considered normal, but it was run of the mill enough for him.

The anomaly alert went off, they stocked up with EMDs from the armoury, they piled into the Range Rovers, and then they were off. The anomaly site was roughly an hour’s drive away – less at the speed Becker was driving at – and in the car park of an old abandoned factory, still up for sale. Relatively out of the way, which was always a plus.

Becker had his men set up a perimeter in case of an incursion while the rest of the team went about locking the anomaly. Connor was taking readings, intently poring over the data.

“This is weird,” Connor said.

That was the first sign of trouble.

“Don’t say that,” Becker told him.

“But I’ve never seen anything like this before!”

“Connor,” Becker warned. “Just get the damn thing closed, all right?”

“Better listen to the man,” Matt said, sounding not nearly serious enough for Becker’s liking. “He sounds cranky. You know how he gets when he’s cranky.”

Abby snickered and Becker decided he hated everyone.

Which, of course, was the moment two men came running through the anomaly. They seemed as surprised by the whole thing as the ARC team was, nearly stumbling as they skidded to a halt. They were also armed.

“Hold your fire!” Becker shouted, as he and each of his men raised their weapons.

The two strangers did the same, wide-eyed and confused, but they both held their guns like they knew how to use them. They occupied each other’s space like they were used to fighting together, used to having each other’s backs. They were dressed similarly, sturdy boots and leather jackets, one a black man and the other a bit older, a bit lighter skinned, maybe Hispanic.

And that was when it really went wrong.

A third figure darted through, slimmer than the others, a young woman with dark hair. She might have been even younger than Jess, by the look of her. The anomaly closed just after her. She was armed, too, but not with a gun.

“Oh my God,” Connor said. “No way.”

Becker felt a headache coming on.

“Is that a lightsaber?”

“Of course it is,” the woman said, annoyed.

Becker understood the feeling.

Connor took a step towards them. “Are you cosplayers? Because if you are, that is by far the best lightsaber I’ve ever seen and I need you to tell me how you made it. In detail.” He paused. “Not really sure who you’re meant to be, though. Any of you.” He glanced at the men, who were still aiming their weapons, though their expressions were even more befuddled than before. “Standard rebel type guys, I guess?”

“Be quiet, Connor,” Becker said.

“Are you going to shoot us?” the woman demanded.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

The woman strode closer to her companions, utterly ignoring the weapons trained on her, still gripping her - her - whatever the hell it was she was holding because Becker refused to call it a lightsaber. “My friends need help,” she said, “so if you’re not going to shoot us, I’d appreciate some assistance.”

Becker looked at the men more closely and realised she was telling the truth. They were both looking the worse for wear, bruises blossoming on their faces, split lips, and one of them was bleeding enough that it looked like he might have been shot.

“Poe,” the woman was saying, the beam from her… weapon vanishing with a sort of buzzing sound. She pressed her hands to the shoulder of the possibly Hispanic, probably shot bloke.

The bloke, Poe, apparently, was looking past her at Becker’s men. “It’d be great if I could stop aiming at you all now, my arm kriffing hurts.”

“Becker,” Matt said, clearly leaning towards the non-violent option.

“Stand down,” Becker said. He didn’t think these three would be a threat, not this outnumbered and not in the state they were in, anyway.

Everyone lowered their weapons. Poe was staring back behind him to where the anomaly used to be, something like horror on his face. “Beebee’s back there. We can get him back, right? He’ll be okay? We can get back to him?”

The woman just kept pressing her hands to his wound. “It’ll be okay, Poe. He knows how to look after himself.”

“If you’re cosplayers,” Connor said, “why do you have actual guns? And who’s shooting at you?”

“What’s a cosplayer?” the black man asked, at nearly the same time as Emily asked it. They both sounded the word out like it was foreign.

Becker definitely had a headache now.

-

They split the three strangers up for the ride back to the ARC, the black man in the backseat of one Rover with Poe and the woman in another. They had argued about it but Abby pointed out that the quicker they all got in, the quicker they could get Poe better help than a field dressing. They’d gone remarkably quietly after that. Becker had considered making them go in three separate vehicles but the woman had glared at him so fiercely that it was a bit scary, honestly, and Becker decided he didn’t care enough to split her up from her wounded friend.

Or boyfriend, possibly. The way she looked at him seemed to support that theory.

The men had parted with their guns(or blasters, as they called them) under duress but the woman had flatly refused to give up her weapon. Becker had compromised by allowing her to stash it in the bag she carried, thinking that the time it would take for her to draw it would be deterrent enough.

If it was even a weapon, in point of fact. He was still fuzzy on that part.

“Jess?” Becker said as he got behind the wheel. “Warn Lester we’re bringing in three people who came through the anomaly. They’re going to need medical attention; one’s been shot.”

It wasn’t like any gunshot wound Becker had ever seen before but that was a problem for later.

“Already on it,” Jess said through Becker’s earpiece. “See you soon!”

Though Becker would have been content to pass the trip in silence, Abby turned around in her seat and said, “I’m Abby. That’s Becker.” She nodded to Emily, seated next to the strangers. “And that’s Emily.”

“Poe Dameron,” the man said with a bigger smile than Becker felt his situation warranted. “Glad to meet you, I guess, though the circumstances could be better.”

The woman was quiet until Becker saw Poe nudge her as he glanced at them in the rearview mirror. “I’m Rey,” she said with reluctance.

“Don’t worry, she doesn’t bite,” Poe said, altogether too cheerfully. “Not unless you deserve it. Or ask very nicely.”

There was a scuffling sound and Poe said, “Ow.”

“You must have a lot of questions,” Abby said.

“Why are your vehicles on the ground?” Poe asked, but Rey was speaking over him.

“Yes,” she was saying, “such as, what planet are we on, and how did we get here? Because this certainly isn’t where we’re meant to be.”

Abby exchanged a look with Becker. “You’re on Earth.”

“Heard of it?” Rey asked Poe.

Poe shook his head. “Not me. What system is that in?”

“System?” Abby said.

“You know, star system. Ileenium system, Yavin system… What?”

“Are we meant to know what you’re saying?” Emily said.

“The solar system, you mean? Earth, third planet orbiting the sun, Milky Way galaxy,” Becker said, frustrated, as he brought the Rover into a turn. “Does that help?”

“Not really,” Poe said.

“What year do you think it is?” Abby asked.

“What year do we think it is?” Rey repeated, her irritation sounding remarkably similar to what Becker was feeling. “What year do _you_ think it is?”

That was when Connor started shouting through Becker’s earpiece. “Guys! Guys! Can you hear me? Are you listening? They’re not cosplayers, they’re actual aliens! From _Star Wars_! _Star Wars_ is real and they’re living it!”

“Bloody hell,” Becker muttered and pulled his comm unit out of his ear.

-

By the time they arrived at the ARC, Becker had reluctantly been forced to accept that Connor might actually have a point. Becker refused to go along with the _Star Wars_ thing but Rey, Poe, and their companion Finn certainly didn’t seem to be from this planet, nor even from this galaxy.

Becker’s brain hurt thinking about it. He was trying not to.

The three strangers went to the infirmary with Connor still yammering on at them animatedly, Abby following after. Becker retrieved the guns - blasters - that his men had confiscated so he could inspect them himself.

Even a cursory examination was enough to reveal that the technology was nothing like Becker had ever seen before. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh, scream, or cry. Possibly all three at once.

Jess sidled over to him, heels clicking on the floor. “Aliens, huh? That’s a new one.”

“Aliens aren’t real,” Becker said, though he wasn’t sure he believed that himself anymore.

“Will you ask Rey if I can touch her lightsaber?” Jess called as Becker went off down the corridor to the infirmary. “And yes, I realise how that sounds!”

In the infirmary, Poe and Finn had their shirts off while they got checked over, Rey flitting between them and angrily brushing off Sergeant Adams as he tried to see if she needed any medical attention herself. “I’m fine, help them!”

“What I can’t understand,” Connor was saying to anyone who would listen, “is how we’re communicating. The idea that we could share a language across multiple galaxies is, of course, ridiculous. This isn’t _Stargate,_ come on.”

“I’m not sure I do understand half of what you say, to be honest,” Finn said, a statement that instantly endeared him to Becker.

“We’re only speaking Basic,” Poe said, wincing as his shoulder got tended to. “Isn’t that what your language is?”

“English, actually,” Abby said, leaning against the wall and watching Connor with fondness.

“So if you’re just speaking normally, and we’re speaking normally, and we can all understand each other, how does that…” Connor got one of those sudden ‘lightbulb’ expressions. “I wonder if it might have something to do with the anomaly? Some sort of universal translator effect, to account for the galaxy hopping?”

Abby raised an eyebrow. “Like the TARDIS?”

Connor beamed at her. “You do pay attention! I mean, I can’t explain it, but I can’t explain how the anomaly brought them across a galaxy yet, either, so. Oh! Do you speak other languages, besides Basic?”

“Sure,” Poe said.

“So if you use another language besides Basic, and we can still understand you, that confirms that Basic and English aren’t the same thing. Say something else.”

Poe obliged, but it was pretty much gibberish. Finn was laughing.

“I didn’t understand that,” Becker said.

Rey was rolling her eyes, though she seemed a bit amused in spite of herself. “That’s because he’s a child,” she said, while Poe beamed at her. “He’s swearing at you. I expect it doesn’t translate.”

“That makes sense.”

“But you understand me?” Rey asked.

“Yes?”

“Because I’m not speaking Basic anymore. So it seems your theory is correct.”

“Fantastic,” Connor said. “I wonder how it works? The anomaly is closed now so it can’t be any sort of peripheral radiating effect, I don’t think, so I wonder… Some sort of aftereffect from going through? Will it wear off?”

“Fascinating,” Matt said dryly, having appeared in the doorway. “Sergeant, is everyone all right?”

Adams turned towards him and nodded. “All good here, sir,” he said, with a quick, almost surreptitious glance at Rey. “Nothing too serious. They’re free to go, though Poe will need his dressing changed periodically.”

“Great,” Finn said, he and Poe immediately jumping down off the beds and retrieving their shirts.Poe made a face when he raised his arm overhead, trying to get his shirt back on, and Finn moved to help him.

“Right, then,” Rey said. “You can get us back to where we’re supposed to be?”

“We’re trying to win a war here, you see,” Poe said. “Got people counting on us. Got my droid waiting for me.”

Becker exchanged glances with the other ARC employees.

“Er,” Connor said. “About that.”

“Never mind that,” Matt interrupted. “You aren’t going anywhere until Lester’s questioned you. And he’s ready for you.”

Finn seemed puzzled. “Lester?”

Becker still had that headache, but somehow he knew this wouldn’t be a sight to be missed.

-

“You don’t much look like aliens,” Lester said, eyeing the three newcomers from across the interrogation table. “Not a tentacle to be seen. Disappointing, really.”

“That’s rude,” Poe said. “Not all aliens are the same, you know.”

“Don’t get him started,” Finn said.

“You’ll never get him to shut up,” Rey agreed.

“Ah, an occurrence I know well,” Lester said.

“Hey,” Connor muttered.

Lester leaned back slightly in his chair, projecting an air of detachment and vague disinterest. “Tell me about yourselves.”

The three of them all looked at each other, as if wondering, _what does this guy want? Where do we even start?_

“We’re with the Resistance,” Poe started.

“Resisting what?”

“The First Order. They want to control the galaxy.”

“Like the Empire?” Connor burst in, though he quieted at a glare from Lester.

“The Empire was defeated decades ago. The First Order is new, but just as bad. The New Republic was ignoring the threat so General Organa--”

Unable to stay silent, Connor said, “Yes! General Organa! Princess Leia! That’s what Finn said, Princess Leia went on to become a general, oh my God, you couldn’t even make this up.”

“You bloody well could,” Lester said. “Tell me, Mister…”

“Dameron. Commander.”

“Very well, _Commander_ Dameron. Tell me how we’re supposed to take you seriously when you’re spouting fairy stories.”

“They aren’t fairy stories to us,” Poe responded, something harder and fiercer in his eyes than Becker had witnessed yet.

_He believes this,_ Becker realised. No matter what was actually true, Poe genuinely believed what he was saying. By all appearances, so did Rey and Finn.

“Have we considered the possibility that they’re all psychotic?” Lester mused aloud.

“You recognised my lightsaber,” Rey said, looking at Connor, who nodded. She set her bag down on the table in front of her. “Would it help if you got to see how it works?”

Connor sat there gaping at her, mouth opening and closing like words had suddenly become something elusive.

“She’s still armed?” Lester said in disbelief. He gave Becker an absolutely betrayed look.

“I’d like to have seen you do any better,” Becker said. “Give me the bag.”

Rey hesitated, her fingers clenching in the worn material.

“It’s all right,” Poe said softly, and Rey gave in. She held the bag up and Becker took it.

The thing she was calling a lightsaber was heavier than Becker had expected. There was a switch on the side that must turn it on. He handed the thing to Connor, who took it almost reverently. “Try not to hurt yourself. Or me.”

Connor was speaking to himself under his breath as he inspected the thing. Then he stood up, moving a safe distance away from everyone, and pressed the switch.

A beam of blue light burst out, with a sort of resonating humming sound. It looked like a large laser with a fixed endpoint, just as it had when Rey had first come through the anomaly.

And it looked an awful lot like a lightsaber, except lightsabers weren’t real. They just weren’t.

Connor swung the blue blade through the back of an empty chair, splitting it right through. Startled, he almost lost his grip before shutting the weapon down. He stared at the hilt in his hand.

“It belonged to Luke Skywalker,” Rey said softly, “and to his father before him. Now it belongs to me.”

The room was silent. No one seemed to know what to say.

Then Lester pushed his chair back and stood up. “Right, I’ve heard enough for today. I’ve got no bloody idea what’s going on or what to do with you three, but I’m frankly open to suggestions.”

“Let us go home?” Finn suggested.

“Besides that.” When no one said anything, Lester continued. “So that’s a no, then. In the meantime you’ll have to stay here, of course, where we can keep an eye on you. We have several rooms available on the premises--”

“Actually,” Rey said, “we’d prefer not to be separated.”

“Quite. Yes, all right. One room. Multiple beds?”

Poe said, “We’re not fussy.”

Lester frowned. “Hmmm. Well, the beds are small, so you can’t say I didn’t warn you, but you can sort yourselves out, I expect.”

Becker nodded to his man outside the interrogation room, keeping guard, and said, “Show them to the temporary stay rooms, will you? Get them settled, keep an eye on them.”

The soldier - Evans - nodded. “Sure thing, boss.”

Rey was holding her hand out. “My lightsaber?”

“Not until we’ve been able to examine it more thoroughly,” Lester told her.

Rey seemed ready to argue but Finn rested his hand on her shoulder. “Just do what they say, Rey. The more of a nuisance we make of ourselves, the less likely they are to help us.”

With obvious reluctance, she relented, accepting the return of her bag without the lightsaber inside. She and her friends followed Evans down the corridor.

Lester turned to Connor. “Take that thing apart and figure out how it works. Perhaps it might help shed some light on the situation.”

Connor seemed torn between a desire to do exactly that and a hesitance spurred by what turned out to be a fear of Rey. “If I break it Rey will kill me, and she’s scary. You know she can use the Force, right? She doesn’t even need that lightsaber to kill me.”

“Then don’t break it,” Lester said, striding away from them with a muttered, “I need a drink.”

“She can use the Force, really, Connor?” Matt said from where he’d been lounging silently, observing the proceedings.

“Did you not see the lightsaber?” Connor said, waving it in the air.

“Just do as Lester says. Get the blasters, too,” Becker told him, thinking that he’d rather like to join Lester for that drink.

-

Everyone stayed late that day. No one was quite willing to leave while there were what seemed to be actual aliens in the building, and they were all eager to find out what Connor had to say about the weapons.

Which was why, when Connor emerged from his lab with Abby, Lester’s office was crowded with the entire ARC field team, plus Jess.

“It shouldn’t work,” was how Connor started. “I mean, it really shouldn’t. It’s got a crystal inside that is definitely not from this planet. There’s only so much analysis I can do without harming it, but it’s just not made of any known element.”

Lester pinched the bridge of his nose. “And the blasters?”

“Way beyond our technology.”

“Can we just go with the theory that they’re psychotic?”

Completely serious, Connor said, “Face the facts, Lester. George Lucas went through an anomaly and ended up in _Star Wars. Star Wars_ is real. They’re from _Star Wars_.”

“Those are most certainly not the facts,” Lester protested. “I will accept that they traveled here from elsewhere, but _Star Wars_ is not real.”

“It is to them,” Abby pointed out.

“We deal with time travel nearly every day,” Emily said. “From what I’ve heard, Nick Cutter created a parallel universe by accident. Is it really so hard to believe that there is a universe out there where our stories are real?”

“And here I always thought you were the rational one,” Lester said in disgust.

“I am being rational.”

“I want to talk to them,” Becker said, and left the office. He could hear the rest of the team, sans Lester, following after him.

Jess quickened her steps to walk by Becker’s side. “What are you going to say to them?”

“I want answers.”

“Poe gave you answers in that interrogation room. You just didn’t like what you heard.”

“You seriously believe this? The anomaly opened up from a galaxy where _Star Wars_ is real?”

“I think you believe it. You just don’t want to admit it.”

Becker ignored that and continued on in silence. He found Evans waiting outside one of the temporary stay rooms, looking bored, though he straightened into perfect military posture as Becker approached.

“All quiet here, boss,” he said.

Becker rapped on the door once and let himself in.

The ARC’s three guests were huddled together on one of the small, single beds, heads bowed together, knees touching, talking amongst themselves. They all jerked up at the sound of the door, each of them reaching for a weapon he or she no longer possessed.

It was almost amusing.

“Come to interrogate us again?” Poe asked. He was clearly the one with the biggest mouth on him. “Though I have to say, the accommodations are better than the last time I found myself in a situation like this. Thanks for that.”

“Travel to other galaxies often?” Becker said.

“That part’s new, I admit.”

Becker moved farther into the room, pulling out a chair and sitting on it as his friends settled around him, Matt remaining standing while Connor, Abby, Emily, and Jess took the second bed. The room’s occupants eyed him warily.

“Tell me who you are,” Becker said simply.

“We already have,” Rey said, her eyes flashing.

“We just want to go home,” Finn added. “We don’t belong here.”

“Clearly,” Becker said. He kept eye contact with Poe, who seemed to be sizing him up.

“My name is Commander Poe Dameron,” Poe said, drawing everyone’s eyes to him. “My parents were Lieutenant Shara Bey and Sergeant Kes Dameron, a pilot and a Pathfinder in the Rebellion. I grew up on Yavin 4 and when I was old enough I went to the academy to become a pilot. I flew for the New Republic Navy until General Leia Organa recruited me for the Resistance. Ever since I’ve been fighting against the First Order. That’s how I met Finn and Rey. Finn’s an ex-stormtrooper, saved my life when he defected, and Rey’s a Jedi Knight in training, the most powerful person I know.”

“She could kill you with her mind,” Finn confirmed.

“Shut up, Finn,” Rey said, shoving him.

Poe, though, was ignoring them, still focused on Becker. His dark eyes were burning with a challenge. “Is that good enough for you, Captain? Want to give me your life story, too, so I can judge if I want to believe it or not?”

Becker blinked. He found himself suddenly feeling somewhat ashamed.

Before he could consider it any further, Rey, as if taking Poe’s cue, said, “My name is Rey and I grew up on Jakku after my family left me there. I was a scavenger, searching through the ruins of ships for parts I could sell for enough food to keep me alive. Then I met Beebee-Ate, Poe’s droid, and Finn, and we escaped from the First Order on the _Millennium Falcon,_ and we met Han Solo and Chewbacca, and I found out… I found out a lot about myself, but most importantly I found out that I do have a family, and they’re right here in this room with me.”

The two men were each smiling at Rey, soft, gentle smiles Becker felt like he was intruding upon. Then Finn, turning away from Rey, said, “Until I met Poe I didn’t even have a name. FN-2187, that’s all I was. But I made a choice to be more than what the First Order wanted me to be, so here I am. You don’t know a thing about me or my friends, so stop acting like you do. All we want is to go back home so we can help the people who are relying on us. You got a problem with that?”

“No one has a problem with that,” Matt assured him. “We’re all just trying to make sense of what’s going on.”

“I think this might help explain why we’ve been so, er, sceptical,” Connor said. He pulled out his phone and fiddled with it before handing it to Finn.

Finn stared at it, Rey and Poe leaning in over his shoulders. “What… uh, what am I looking at?”

“In our world, your history is a series of films. Fiction. We’ve watched Luke Skywalker blow up the Death Star for entertainment.”

“Stars,” Poe said.

“Yeah,” Finn agreed, scrolling through what Becker assumed was a page of images. “This is messed up.” The phone must have been similar enough to whatever devices they had on their planets because Finn didn’t seem to be having any trouble figuring out how to use it.

“The general would never have worn anything like that.” Poe considered. “But the likeness is really… I mean, she was a babe.”

Rey smacked the back of his head. “I’m going to tell her you said that.”

Poe grinned. “I’ve already said that to her face.”

“Is there something you’d like to tell us, Poe?” Finn asked, smirking.

“Ah, only in my dreams,” Poe lamented, sighing. “Hey, were my parents in your holofilms?”

Matt pointed to Connor. “He’s the expert.”

“Sorry,” Connor said. “I didn’t recognise the names.”

Poe seemed disappointed by that bit of news but he perked up quickly. “Well, I have to say, I’ve seen holos from when they were young, and these actors are damn close, it’s uncanny. Look at Luke, he’s adorable.”

Rey’s finger was hovering over the phone, the corners of her mouth downturned. “Look at Han,” she said softly.

Poe squeezed her knee. “Sorry, Rey.”

“Wait, wait,” Connor said, horrified. “Is Han Solo…?”

Rey’s face was answer enough.

Connor looked crushed. Abby actually reached over to rub his neck, like Han Solo was a real person he had cared about.

Like he clearly was for Rey, and for Finn, and for Poe. Finn held the phone back out and Connor took it from him, all the light-hearted energy from moments ago sapped out of the room.

“You can’t get us home, can you? You have no idea how we got here,” Rey said. She sounded resigned rather than questioning. She already knew the answer.

“You’re right,” Jess said, standing up and moving over to Rey where she was still seated on the other bed, stopping in front of her. “I’m not going to lie to you. But I promise that we’re going to do everything we can to help you. That’s what we do; we help people. We will get you back home.” Jess looked back to Connor. “Won’t we?”

Connor nodded fervently. “Absolutely. Yes, I’ll figure it out. I’m not sure how? But I will.”

Poe was looking at Becker. Becker felt, somehow, that they understood each other. He nodded his head slightly and Poe nodded back, something in his posture loosening.

“It isn’t so bad here,” Emily said. “If you have to stay a while, I mean. I thought… Well, I wasn’t supposed to be here, either, but I grew to like it.”

“I’m sure it’s great,” Finn said, with the air of someone who appreciated the sentiment but disagreed with the actual statement. “No one’s saying it’s not. But we _need_ to be somewhere else. We need to be home.”

“And we’ll get you there, promise. In the meantime,” Connor said eagerly,“tell me everything. Start with Princess Leia. General Organa. Oh my God, please, start with her.”

Finn and Rey exchanged an amused glance. “Oh, he’s going to be sorry.”

“Sorry? Why?”

Finn grinned. “Because this guy will happily talk to you about how wonderful and amazing Leia Organa is for the rest of your lives. I am not exaggerating.”

“Leia Organa is my hero and my role model and I am not ashamed,” Poe declared.

“I like him,” Jess said, earning a wide smile from Poe.

“Everybody likes Poe,” Finn and Rey said at the same time, like it was a joke between them. Poe made no attempt to dispute it.

“Well,” Matt said, moving towards the door, “if it’s all the same to you, I’m gonna go before the Princess Leia love fest gets started. No offense.”

Poe shrugged. “Your loss.”

“We’ll return your weapons to you,” Matt said. “Consider it a sign of good faith.”

“Your boss will be okay with that? Lester?”

“Lester trusts me to make decisions that are in our best interest.”

Finn, Poe, and Rey all exchanged glances before Rey said, “Thank you. Thank you for trusting us. We… We really don’t want to cause any trouble.”

Matt nodded at her. “I know. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to make you more comfortable.”

Becker followed him as he left the room, falling into step beside him. “You really trust them?”

“Don’t you?”

Becker thought of the fierce protectiveness in Rey’s face as Poe’s blood seeped between her fingers, Finn’s desperation as he said they only wanted to go home, Poe’s easy smiles morphing into defiance. “I suppose I do,” he said.

He hoped he wouldn’t regret it.

-

If Becker arrived at the ARC earlier than usual the following morning, he would deny to anyone who asked that it had anything to do with their new guests. He was simply getting a head start on the day, that was all. He had a report to write up about the previous day’s events.

That was all.

Of course, that wouldn’t have explained why he was walking the corridors, but Becker was certain he could think of something.

The first person he encountered outside of the ARC’s night staff, however, was Finn.

“Didn’t expect to see you up so early,” Becker said, eyeing him.

Finn, wearing the clean, standard issue ARC clothing they had given him, shrugged. “Got used to early mornings in the First Order. Hard habit to break, I guess.”

“Where are Rey and Poe?” Perhaps it did them a disservice, but Becker had begun to think of them all as a package deal. Though, he supposed, if he wound up in an entirely different galaxy, he might like to stay close to his friends, too.

“Rey’s meditating. Poe’s asleep. He… doesn’t like mornings. Expect him to take full advantage of not waking up until he wants to wake up for as long as we’re here.”

“Noted,” Becker said, vaguely amused. “I was going to get some coffee; you want any?”

Finn frowned. “Coffee?”

“Er…” How did one describe coffee to an alien? “Hot caffeinated beverage? Brewed from coffee beans? Bitter?”

“Oh, like caf, you mean. I think. It’s not made from coffee beans. I’m not sure we have those.”

“Close enough. You want any?”

“Sure, I guess,” Finn said, and walked in step with Becker to the break room.

Becker started a fresh pot, knowing that whatever he and Finn didn’t drink would be eagerly consumed by his teammates, then sat with Finn at the table in the centre of the room. “Have you eaten?” He hoped Connor and the rest of them had got food for Finn, Poe, and Rey last night. He didn’t want them thinking people from Earth were all bastards.

No, he realised, there was no reason to worry. Jess had been with them. There was no way Jess would have allowed them to go without dinner.

“I thought I’d wait for Poe and Rey. Or, Rey, at least. Expect I’ll be starving before Poe’s up.”

“Fair enough. But you’re welcome to anything in here, if you like.”

“Thanks,” Finn said, seeming genuine. “I know we must be a bother to you.”

“Probably not as much of a bother as we are for you. I mean, the fact that you’re stuck here.”

Finn didn’t disagree.

When the coffee had brewed Becker got up and poured two mugs, passing one over to Finn. It was a novelty mug with a T-rex on it, though Finn didn’t take much notice of it. Probably he had no idea what Earth animals would look like.

“It mostly tastes like caf,” Finn observed, sipping. “Except stronger. Maybe a bit more bitter.”

“This is the cheap stuff, too,” Becker told him. “Not that strong, considering.” They sat in silence for a few moments before Becker said, trying to strike up a conversation, “I gather things weren’t going well for you when you ended up here?”

Finn brushed a healing cut on his face. “What was it that gave it away?”

Becker almost made a Sherlock Holmes joke before realising it would be lost on Finn. “If you don’t mind me asking, what was it you were attempting to do?”

“We’d received intel that the First Order was looking to intercept a mineral shipment so General Organa sent us to make sure that didn’t happen. The problem was the First Order was already there when we arrived. The three of us didn’t stand a chance. They caught us but we were able to get away, only… Poe had come separately from us, in his X-wing, so we thought if he could just get to it, if we could cover his escape and if he could get to his ship, maybe we’d have a chance. But then Poe got shot and it pretty much fell apart. I’m not sure what would have happened if we’d hadn’t come through the…”

“Anomaly.”

“Yeah. The anomaly. We were just running, and there it was, and we didn’t know what it was but we needed to get Poe into cover, so we just… risked it. I’m not sure if it was worth it or not.”

“I suppose it depends on what happens now.”

“Yeah,” Finn agreed, dejected. He didn’t seem to have much confidence in the ARC team’s ability to return him to where he needed to be.

Becker wasn’t sure he could blame him. “What will happen if they get it? The mineral, or whatever it was?”

“Nothing good.”

“I’m sorry,” Becker said, for lack of anything else to say. Even if they could manage to get Finn and his friends home there was no guarantee it would be to the right spot, or to the right time, or that they would be able to complete their mission. Becker truly was sorry.

After another semi-awkward stretch of silence, Finn said, “So, don’t take this the wrong way, but you know an awful lot about us and we don’t really know anything about you.”

“Technically we’re supposed to be a secret government organisation.” Sort of. Convergence had done a number on that.

“Really? You’re gonna pull that on me?”

“I’m a bit fuzzy on how our rules apply to aliens, to be honest.”

“I imagine you can make it up as you go,” Finn suggested.

Becker’s lips twitched. “Not sure Lester or the Minister would approve, but I suppose it can be our secret. We… Well, the anomalies are basically like holes in time and space. If you want a more scientific explanation I recommend you ask Connor.”

“Think I’m good.”

“Right, well, sometimes the anomalies open up and then it’s our job to contain them. If something comes through we try to put it back and make sure no one here gets hurt. We also try to minimise any changes to the timeline.”

“What happens if that doesn’t work? If you mess up the timeline?”

“Not sure we’d know, honestly.”

“How could you not know?”

“It happened before. We used to…” Becker swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. “There was this professor. He said he changed the timeline, went through an anomaly and when he came back he said it was different. He said there wasn’t an ARC, where he came from, and that he’d actually wiped a woman out of existence. But he was the only one who remembered any of it.”

Finn’s expression clearly indicated how insane that sounded. “You believed him?”

“No. Not at first. But I do now.”

“That’s crazy,” Finn said, shaking his head. “Not sure I’d believe you if I wasn’t, well, _here._ ”

“I know the feeling.”

“So this sort of thing happens often? Weird people end up in your spare bedrooms?”

“Less than you might think. Usually it’s animals. Dangerous, less dangerous, from the past, from the future… But always creatures that don’t belong here.”

“What’s worse, then? Us or the animals?”

“Verdict’s still out on that one,” Becker said.

-

Over the next couple of days the visitors began to feel almost like a staple in the ARC. Becker would walk into the gym area to find Rey balancing on her head while she moved things with her mind - with the _Force,_ dear Lord - or he’d walk past the infirmary and notice Poe getting his dressing changed. Finn would be hanging around Jess’ station making her laugh or the three of them would be huddled together in the break room talking quietly to each other.

Becker had to admit that he liked them. It was hard _not_ to like them. They were friendly and cheerful in spite of their circumstances and they never complained. Becker was particularly fond of watching Rey, he had to say.

Though Finn and Rey both used the gym for sparring and training (and Becker had observed Poe on multiple occasions trying to convince one of them to spar with him, without any success), Rey was the most fascinating. With or without the lightsaber, she was… Well, she was amazing. She said that the Force was harder to access here, that it was dimmer, but if that was true then Becker couldn’t imagine what she would be like in her own galaxy.

Lester wasn’t being all that strict on limiting their exposure to the outside world, his thinking being that if they blabbed their story to any civilians they would either get laughed off or find themselves getting admitted to a mental hospital. Nevertheless they spent most of their time inside the ARC or out in the surrounding grounds. It wasn’t like they had anywhere to go.

Becker still didn’t know how likely it was that they would ever return to where they belonged. Connor spent most of his spare time in his lab working on a solution but… They were from another _galaxy._ The likelihood of the right anomaly opening up again was so small as to be minuscule.

Not that Becker was going around broadcasting that opinion. He wasn’t that mean.

Even if the number of times he came upon Poe and Jess, smiling, laughing, disregarding personal space, was starting to get on his nerves. Poe was altogether too friendly and he needed to keep his hands to himself.

So did Finn, for that matter, Finn and his face and his arms, but right now Becker was looking at Poe leaning in next to Jess, raptly listening to her talk, brushing his fingers against her hand.

“You’re like the master behind the scenes, doing most of the work without getting any of the credit,” he was saying as Becker approached.

“You’re so right,” Jess agreed, beaming like Poe had hung the stars.

“Your set-up here is pretty impressive, I mean, the tech’s not quite the same but the Resistance doesn’t have anything as good as this.”

“Connor’s responsible for the science behind the ADD, obviously, but I’ve made some modifications, and I designed this station myself.”

Poe was clearly impressed and Becker decided it was high time he got in between them. “Poe,” he said.

“Hey,” Poe said, somehow managing to seem genuinely pleased to see Becker.

“Finn’s looking for you.” Which wasn’t technically true, but then again, one of the three was usually looking for either of the others, so. Maybe it was true.

“Is he? Thanks.” Poe smiled at them both, Jess, then Becker. “It was great chatting with you, Jess. Becker.”

“He’s so nice, isn’t he?” Jess said, sort of wistfully, gazing after Poe as he walked away. “Also gorgeous.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Becker said, which was a lie.

Jess grinned at him. “Jealous?”

“Of what?”

Jess’ face fell a little, her smile fading. “His hair might be nicer than yours,” she said, not a little vindictively.

Becker resisted the urge to fuss with his hair. “He shouldn’t be so…”

“So what?”

“He shouldn’t flirt so much, that’s all. It’s not… not… It’s unprofessional,” Becker finished lamely, fully realising that he was accusing an alien from another galaxy who didn’t even work here of being unprofessional.

Now Jess was smiling again. “I don’t think he means anything by it. To be honest I’m not sure he actually realises he’s doing anything. I think he’s just… _nice._ ”

Becker hummed in vague agreement. “He doesn’t strike me as the disloyal type.”

“Oh, because of Finn, you mean?”

“I was going to say Rey.”

“Rey? Huh. I mean, Poe’s clearly in love with Finn; I don’t know what you’ve been looking at.”

“And I don’t know what you’ve been looking at, because Rey--”

“Thinks Finn is the coolest person ever, obviously,” Connor interrupted from behind them.

Becker and Jess both turned to look at him, standing there with Abby.

He raised his hands. “What? She does. They’re all googly-eyed around each other.”

Abby started snickering.

“What?” Connor said.

“Just… you three. You’re hilarious.”

Becker crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you think’s going on, then?”

Abby shrugged her shoulders. “They’re all shagging each other, and if any of you had been paying any attention it would have been obvious.”

“All of them?” Connor’s voice reached a higher pitch than it normally did.

“That’s one way to solve a love triangle,” Jess said.

Becker was still trying to wrap his head around it. He had been so sure - but no, when he thought about it, it made sense. The way Rey and Finn reached for each other so reflexively and the way they looked at each other. The way Poe watched them, like he wasn’t sure how he’d got so lucky.

Abby was right. He hadn’t been paying attention, not really. He had seen Rey anxiously worry for Poe after he’d been shot and Becker had let that image grow in his mind until he couldn’t see anything else.

Jess was talking again. “Can’t blame them, can you? I mean, those are three beautiful people and they probably have amazing sex.”

“Jess,” Abby said, laughing.

“I’m just saying what we’re all thinking!”

Though she did have a point, Becker was absolutely not thinking about it. He was trying not to, anyway. Er. “I suppose that’s why they didn’t care if they had more than one bed,” he said.

-

The break room wasn’t empty, Becker could tell as he approached. He could hear the sound of laughter wafting through the open door and indeed, when he stepped inside, he found Rey and Finn.

And Rex.

“Becker!” Rey said as she saw him, Rex perched on her shoulder and chirping happily. “He just flew in here; he’s so cute!”

“Is he supposed to be out?” Finn asked.

“That’s Rex, he belongs to Abby,” Becker told them. “He mostly goes wherever he wants. He’s a… permanent resident of this century, much to Lester’s chagrin.” The only reason Rey and Finn hadn’t become acquainted with Rex earlier, Becker knew, was because he’d been keeping Sid and Nancy company for the past few days.

“Can I give him something? What does he eat? Finn, have you got anything?”

“I don’t carry around food in my pockets, why would I have food?”

Utterly ignoring Finn’s protests, Rey dug her hand into Finn’s pockets while he squirmed and pushed at her. Triumphantly she held up half a chocolate bar. “I knew it!”

“Hey! I was saving that!”

Rey looked doubtfully from the chocolate to Rex. “Can he eat this?”

“Best if he doesn’t,” Becker said, struggling to maintain a straight face. They were like five-year-olds.

“Give me that,” Finn said, stealing the chocolate back.

The klaxon warning bell of the ADD rang out, signaling an incursion. Rex flew up off Rey’s shoulder, circling their heads.

Finn and Rey looked startled and scared. “What is that?”

“Means there’s an anomaly,” Becker told them as he started to run. He heard the clatter of their footsteps as they followed him. “That’s not an invitation!”

“If you expect us to just sit here then you don’t know us at all,” Rey said, easily keeping pace with Becker’s longer strides.

“You’re right, I don’t know you. That’s why you’re not coming.”

“We want to help!”

Becker hesitated, inwardly cursing himself. He abruptly changed direction, heading for the hub rather than the armoury. This should be Lester’s problem, not his.

When he arrived, Jess seemed surprised to see him, as he usually bypassed the hub entirely to save time. Only Lester and Poe were with her and by the look of things, Poe had had the same idea as his friends.

“Sir,” Becker started, but Lester interrupted him.

“Let me guess. They want to help?”

“We’re all experienced in combat,” Finn began to argue. “We know what we’re doing.”

“This is a bit different from what you’re used to,” Becker said.

“We adapt quickly,” Poe insisted. “We can’t do anything for our friends right now and the more we just sit around… Let us at least be of some use to you.”

Becker looked to Lester, who shrugged. “Not my problem. As long as they don’t get in the way I don’t care what they do.”

“Really feeling the love,” Finn said.

“Matt, help me out here,” Becker said and waited for Matt’s response on comms. Jess had her speakers on so everyone could hear.

“Let them come,” Matt said, which wasn’t exactly what Becker had been expecting. “I think they’re smart enough not to do anything stupid.”

Rey seemed not a little smug as she met Becker’s eyes.

Becker quelled the urge to sigh. “Fine. On one condition,” he said, looking at Poe. “You might be a commander in your galaxy but here you will do everything Matt or I tell you to. That goes for all of you, or no deal.”

“Yes, sir,” Poe said with a perfectly executed salute that was offset by the way he was smirking.

“Absolutely,” Finn agreed while Rey nodded.

“Come with me,” Becker said, leading them to the armoury. “Leave your weapons; you’ll use the EMDs, same as us. No harming the creatures, unless you have to.”

In Becker’s earpiece Abby was saying, “No harming the creatures, full stop.”

_Unless you have to,_ Becker thought, but he kept it to himself.

The anomaly was in a park, two hours away. Jess shaved some time off their trip by mapping a better route and possibly doing something illegal with streetlights that Becker had never and would never ask her about. It was a chilly, rainy day, which worked to their advantage in that there were far less people outside enjoying the fresh air than there could have been.

“No reports yet,” Jess informed them. “I’ll continue monitoring news and social media.”

“Thanks, Jess. Lock it down, yeah, Connor?” Matt said.

“Should I not mention that I was hoping to see a great big-- what do you call them? Dinosaurs?” Finn asked.

“Can’t be worse than the rathtars,” Rey muttered, to which Finn nodded emphatically.

“Haven’t you heard of a jinx?” Connor said, glancing up from his equipment.

Becker sent his men into the park to evacuate any civilians, just in case anything had come through already. They had only just moved off, spreading out in different directions, when a man came running towards them.

He was wet and mud-splattered and he pulled his earbuds out as he approached. “Hey! Are you those… those dinosaur people? From the news? Because there’s a pack of something back that way!” He pointed.

“What sort of something?” Emily asked before Becker could.

“I don’t know, like, uh… skinny little lizards, on two legs, wouldn’t even reach my knees. With teeth. Sharp teeth. And claws.”

Connor showed the man a picture on his phone. “Did they look like this?”

The man nodded. “Sure, yeah, I think so. Yeah, that was them.”

“Compsognathus. Small carnivorous theropod.”

“If you don’t mind, I’m gonna…”

“Yes, go,” Abby said to the man, shooing him off.

Matt said, “Jess, have a look at the CCTV surrounding the park, I want to make sure--”

“Nothing’s got out, yes, I’m already on it,” Jess confirmed.

Finn, Poe, and Rey were stealing a look at Connor’s phone. “It’s cute, isn’t it?” Rey said.

“Haven’t you seen _Jurassic Park_?” Connor asked. At their blank expressions he said, “Right, you clearly haven’t. Well, they can eat you. So don’t get too close.”

They looked at the dinosaur depicted in the picture with new respect.

“Good news is they’re small,” Matt said. “If we can immobilise them they’ll be easy to cart back to the anomaly.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Emily said, hefting her EMD.

“We’ll want to try to surround them,” Becker said. He split up the team, directing each group on where to go, leaving Connor with the last remaining soldier at the anomaly. “And you three are with me,” he said to Rey, Finn, and Poe. “Where I can keep an eye on you.”

“We aren’t children, you know,” Finn said.

“All appearances aside,” Poe said, earning himself a cuff up the backside of his head from Rey.

“Come along, children,” Becker said, ignoring Finn’s disgruntled commentary as he ran.

After a few minutes Becker heard Abby say, “They’ve been here. Ugh.”

“Was that a squirrel?” Emily asked.

“I think it used to be, yes. They’re heading in your direction, Matt. We’re coming to you.”

“Copy that,” Matt said.

“We’ll come at you from the south,” Becker said. “See if we can’t box them all in at once.”

It mostly worked. Becker started running when he heard the team scuffling with the dinosaurs over the comms, only for Matt to say, “Half of the little monsters are heading your way, Becker!”

Matt had barely finished speaking before the compys were on them, four of them, chittering to each other. It was Finn who shot the first one, before Becker could even get one of the bastards in his sight. Damn if Finn’s reflexes weren’t spectacular.

The dinosaurs were small and quick and while Becker didn’t doubt a crowd of them would be extremely unpleasant, with his EMD and back-up he felt they were more of a nuisance than an actual threat at the moment. He took one out himself but the other two were scattering. “Has anyone got eyes on them?”

“There!” Rey said, as the two dinosaurs made a break for it, apparently deciding flight was their best option.

Finn was in their way and as Rey shouted he spun, raising his EMD. Rey hit one but the other kept moving and Finn suddenly went down, his foot catching on a root on the ground.

“Kriffing hell!” Finn swore, bringing his hands up to block his face as the compy dove at him, deeming him an easy target on its path to freedom.

“Finn!” Rey and Poe both shouted, sounding equally terrified.

Three simultaneous blasts hit the dinosaur at once and it fell into a heap. Finn scrambled up, blood dripping from scattered bite marks and scratches on his hands and forearms.

Rey and Poe immediately went to him, checking him over with concern. Becker looked away to give them some privacy, nudging the unconscious dinosaur with the toe of his boot. It was still breathing, shallowly, so Abby couldn’t yell at him. He picked it up.

“All clear,” he said.

“We’ve got the rest of ‘em,” Matt said on the comms. “Heading back now.”

“All right, Finn?” Becker asked.

“Uh, yeah, just… Ow. Seriously, ow,” Finn said. He was bearing weight on his ankle without any visible distress so that was a plus. Rey and Poe had their arms around him like they weren’t planning on letting him out of their sight.

“We’ll get you fixed up,” Becker told him, and they gathered up the rest of the unconscious compys and walked back to the anomaly site.

-

Back at the ARC, Rey and Poe herded Finn off to the infirmary so he could get cleaned up properly. He went along with a sort of resignation, as if he knew protesting that he was fine, really, it wasn’t bad, would merely be a waste of his breath.

“Well done,” Lester said to Becker. “You managed to get one of our guests attacked by a small dinosaur.”

“Thought you said you didn’t care what happened to them.”

“I don’t. Just making an observation,” Lester said, turning around to head back to his office.

Becker rolled his eyes at Lester’s back.

“No major injuries, that’s always a plus,” Jess said brightly.

“Generally I think so, yes.”

“Oh, stop sulking. Finn’s fine. It wasn’t your fault.”

Jess was right but Becker couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty. He had allowed Finn to be there in the first place when he should have been safely stowed in the ARC. What if it had been something bigger, something more dangerous, something whose bite could have proved fatal?

He was jolted out of his thoughts by Connor, who joined Becker and Jess only to say, “I think we need to have a movie night! You know, to celebrate.”

Becker raised an eyebrow. “Celebrate?”

“Successfully handled incursion! That’s good enough reason for me. Besides, we should try and make Rey and Poe and Finn feel welcome here.”

“That’s a good idea, actually,” Jess said, because of course she would. “What did you have in mind?”

The gleam in Connor’s eyes gave it away before the words came out of his mouth. “ _Star Wars,_ what else?”

“Fuck’s sake,” Becker muttered.

“Come on, it’s perfect! They have to be curious, and anyway, I want to see what they say. It’ll be like watching a war movie with a veteran.”

“Not really, I mean, they weren’t even born yet when the movies end, were they?” Jess pointed out.

“Poe was. Technically. He said he was two or something. But anyway, it’s close enough. You can’t tell me you don’t want to see their reactions!”

Jess’ expression clearly indicated that she did.

“Just the original trilogy. The prequels must be like ancient history for them, and anyway we don’t want to traumatise them.” Connor paused as if a thought had just occurred to him. “Hey, do you think that’s why the prequels are so bad? George Lucas got to witness the original trilogy but he only heard about the prequels.”

“I like the prequels,” Jess said.

“You take that back,” Connor said, recoiling.

“Two words: Ewan McGregor.”

“But… Oh, all right, I’ll give you that.”

“They’ve got some good points,” Jess went on. “Besides, Padmé’s wardrobe is fabulous.”

“Padmé’s wardrobe,” Connor repeated. “Because that’s what we should be paying attention to in a _Star Wars_ film.”

“Because the story is so revolutionary? The dialogue so perfectly rendered?”

“I can’t talk to you anymore,” Connor said, backing up his words by walking away.

“The best part is,” Jess said to Becker, her eyes full of amusement, “I adore _Star Wars._ He’s just so fun to tease.”

Becker gave her a high-five.

-

Finn, Poe, and Rey proved to be fully on-board with watching the films based on the galaxy they had come from, history in their world and fiction in this one. Becker drove them over to Jess’ flat from the ARC, the three of them happily seated in the backseat together. Jess had the largest TV and the nicest flat out of everyone, not to mention she loved entertaining, so she had eagerly volunteered to host.

“I’ve got some wine,” Jess said to them all, once they were gathered in her living room. “If that’s all right with everyone?”

“Booze is always fine with me,” Poe said. “Besides, who am I to turn down the opportunity to see what alcohol is like in other galaxies?”

“You’re an ass,” Rey said, but Finn was laughing.

“Sit where you like,” Jess said with a sunny smile. “I’ll get the drinks.”

“I’ll help,” Abby offered. “Emily?”

Emily seemed momentarily surprised in that awkward way she had when forced to adjust from her Victorian worldview as a wealthy woman with servants to just regular, boring twenty-first century life where people got their own drinks. As usual, though, she made the adjustment quickly. “Yes, I’ll join you.”

Poe, Finn, and Rey immediately gravitated naturally towards each other, as Finn went to sit on one end of the sofa with Rey curling up against him, tucking her feet beneath her, and with Poe slumping onto the floor in front of them, leaning against Finn’s leg. Rey dropped her hand into Poe’s hair, playing with his curls.

Becker thought he must have been blind not to realise what was going on with the three of them. Then again, he thought, glancing back towards where Jess had walked off to her kitchen, perhaps he had merely been projecting his own desires onto them. Becker wasn’t Poeand Jess wasn’t Rey but… Well. Anyway.

“It’s about six hours to watch all three,” Connor was saying. “Did I mention that? I mean, I guess we could just watch one at a time, but…”

“We’ve obviously got nowhere else to be,” Finn pointed out.

“If I leave halfway through,” Matt said, “it won’t be because of the company. I swear.”

“Matt clearly has no taste,” Connor explained to their guests. “He doesn’t ‘get’ _Star Wars._ ”

“D’you think we should be offended by that?” Poe wondered. “It is our history.”

“Drinks!” Jess announced, handing around a bunch of coffee mugs. “I don’t have enough wine glasses for all of you and honestly I don’t trust you not to break them, so you get mugs.”

“I only broke one,” Connor said, taking a lime green mug from Jess.

“It was two, actually,” Abby corrected, earning a betrayed look from Connor.

“If anyone’s hungry, feel free to help yourselves to anything in the kitchen,” Jess told them.

She started up the first movie while they sorted themselves out between the sofa and the floor and a couple of armchairs. Becker felt a momentary stab of jealousy towards Finn, Rey, and Poe, all contentedly occupying each others’ space, when Jess failed to sit anywhere near him.

It proved to be the most entertaining time Becker had ever had watching _Star Wars,_ that was certain. Their three visitors would periodically shout at the screen, sometimes in protest, sometimes in excitement. Finn was particularly appalled by the ineptitude of the stormtroopers and Poe, who seemed most familiar with the events he was viewing, liked to debate the veracity of this fictionalised version. Rey seemed to enjoy it the most, watching with wide-eyed enthusiasm and getting swept up in the story.

She did, however, point out that R2-D2 wasn’t actually saying anything at all. It was just beeps. “Though I suppose it would be a bit much to assume any of you would be able to replicate an astromech’s binary speech.”

“You mean you could understand him normally? If he were actually saying something?” Connor asked, visibly intrigued.

“Of course,” she said. “So could Poe.”

“And Finn’s learning,” Poe made sure to point out.

Finn snorted. “Sort of. Beebee’s just fooling with me, I know he is.”

Rey and Poe grinned at each other and neither disagreed.

“But Luke can’t,” Connor said.

“No, he can,” Rey said. “I don’t know if he always could? But he definitely talks to Artoo all the time.”

“Amazing. And they’re like this? I mean, they have personalities?”

Poe seemed offended by the suggestion that that was a point to be disputed. “You’ve got a personality, haven’t you?”

“Yes, but--”

“There you go, then,” Poe said, and that was the end of that.

Becker’s favourite part was watching Rey, Finn, and Poe watch Leia kiss Luke at the start of _The Empire Strikes Back._

“Ewwwwww,” Finn said, making a face and putting his hand out as if to block the screen.

“That never happened! She would never kiss him; they’re twins!” Rey exclaimed.

“They didn’t know that,” Poe said, musing. “They were young, they were attractive, they felt this connection but they didn’t know what it was… People experiment, so what?”

Rey and Finn were both staring at the top of Poe’s head in disgust. “If I didn’t know you were an only child I would be deeply disturbed right now,” Finn said.

Some parts were a good deal less fun. Poe winced, watching Leia witness the destruction of her homeworld, and Finn took Rey’s hand during Luke’s confrontation with Darth Vader on the bridge in Bespin. Some parts clearly hit close to home for the three of them, perhaps triggered unpleasant memories. After observing their discomfort during Leia’s interrogation scene in _A New Hope,_ Abby wisely grabbed the remote and skipped through Han’s torture in _The Empire Strikes Back._

Mostly, though, they seemed to enjoy it. Poe grew particularly animated during the scenes on Hoth and Endor, chattering excitedly about his parents’ involvement. When Luke flew the shuttle out of the Death Star just before it exploded, he said, “My mom almost killed Luke right there. Nearly shot him down.”

“She did not,” Rey said.

“Yep,” Poe said fondly. “Bit of a misunderstanding, you see.”

“Just a tiny one,” Finn said, rolling his eyes.

At the end of _Return of the Jedi,_ Connor, with an air of not being able to hold himself back, said, “Rey! Can you see them? The Force ghosts?”

“I didn’t know you could,” she said, staring at the screen. “Can you? Is that possible or did they make it up?”

Poe shrugged and Finn said, “You’re asking the wrong person.”

“I hope I get the chance to find out,” Rey said, and Becker found that he wanted that, too.

He truly hoped Rey and Finn and Poe could return to their home, where droids had personalities and people flew among the stars.

-

Connor continued working on a solution. He was hopeful when he spoke to Poe, Rey, and Finn, but to Becker it all sounded like far too many hypotheticals and no genuine solutions.

“It should just be a matter of replicating the original circumstances as closely as possible. Theoretically,” Connor said.

“Theoretically,” Rey repeated.

“You can do that?” Finn asked.

“I think so? Yes. Yes, I can,” Connor said, sounding as though he were convincing himself as he spoke. “I mean, I can’t open an anomaly? That… that didn’t work out so well for us, um, before. But recurring anomalies aren’t unusual and I’m willing to bet this one just might be, because we’ve got proof someone from our galaxy’s visited yours.”

“At a different time though, right?” Rey said. “So couldn’t that have been an entirely different anomaly?”

Connor’s face fell. “Well, yes.” He perked up again. “But listen, that just goes to show that anomalies _do_ connect our two galaxies. We just have to wait for it to happen again. And I took loads of readings so I’ll know what to look for, and possibly… nudge it along, a bit. I think.”

“How long is this going to take?” Poe asked.

“No idea.”

“So by the time it happens, we’ll already have failed our mission,” Finn said.

“Not… not necessarily. These things aren’t exact; it could very well open up back to the original time you left.”

“But you don’t know that.”

“No,” Connor admitted. “No, I don’t.”

-

Three weeks passed. Anomalies opened but not to where Finn, Poe, and Rey hoped they would open. Connor had built some sort of device that was supposed to encourage the formation of an anomaly like the one they had come through but it was all fairly theoretical. He wouldn’t know if it worked until it did. Nevertheless, they dispatched a team to the site of the original anomaly to monitor it all day, every day.

Becker was somewhat surprised Lester was willing to use their resources like that. Maybe their alien visitors had grown on him, too.

Or maybe he just wanted to get rid of them.

When the ADD alarm started going off one afternoon, Becker had only made it partway down the corridor before Connor started talking on the comms. “Get to the hub, Becker, I think this is what we’ve been waiting for.”

Becker turned in the opposite direction when he reached the bend in the corridor and ran to the hub. He found everyone crowded around Jess, all talking over each other.

“You really think this is ours?” Rey was saying. “This is the one that will bring us home?”

“Can’t know for certain until we get there but the data the team’s sent me from on-site is promising.” Connor grinned. “I think this is the one!”

Finn, Poe, and Rey seemed flabbergasted, like they didn’t know what to think, all clutching each other like lifelines.

Becker said, “If Connor’s right, we’ll come with you, of course.”

“You’ll come with us?” Finn repeated.

“Can’t exactly let you walk into an army of stormtroopers, can we? I mean, wasn’t going so well for you before, was it?”

Seemingly unconsciously, Poe rubbed at his shoulder, where his blaster wound was. “We can’t let you do that. It’s not your fight.”

Abby backed up Becker. “You put your own lives at risk to help us. You didn’t have to. At least let us return the favour.”

Finn, Poe, and Rey exchanged glances, communicating silently, and then Rey nodded. “All right. Thank you. Really, thank you.”

“We’ll give you all the support we can, but I won’t risk the lives of my soldiers,” Becker made sure to explain.

“Understood,” Poe said, and Becker thought he truly did understand.

“Our radios obviously won’t work over there, so we’ll be going in blind, so to speak,” Matt said.

“I won’t be able to help you,” Jess said, horrified, as if she’d only just realised it. “Let me come with you! I’ll come with you.”

“Absolutely not,” Becker said immediately.

“Why not? I can take care of myself.”

“It’s an unnecessary risk. No.”

“You can’t actually stop me,” Jess said, her eyes flashing.

“But I can,” Matt said.

“And so can I,” Lester said.

Jess gaped at them, Matt and then Lester, betrayed.

“Jess, no one doubts that you can handle yourself. We’ve all seen it. But quite frankly, you lack field experience and this is… This isn’t the time to be messing about,” Matt explained as gently as possible.

“Then I’ll stay on this side of the anomaly, I’ll monitor things from there. I know the tech better than anyone but Connor. And if it starts to close… At least I can warn you.”

“And get trapped on the wrong side with us? As I said, absolutely not,” Becker said.

“Better trapped with you than without you.”

Becker could feel everyone staring at him but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Jess. “Fine,” he found himself saying without consciously meaning to. “Fine, all right.”

Jess nodded once, firmly.

Lester said, “And you’ll keep me in the loop, Miss Parker.” It wasn’t a question.

“Definitely,” she confirmed.

“Well, then, off with you. I hope…” His gaze flickered between Poe, Rey, and Finn. “I hope never to see your faces again.”

“Back at you,” Finn said with a grin and then they all rushed into motion.

“Do you have real weapons in that armoury of yours?” Poe asked, grabbing Becker’s elbow. “I know how it sounds but if you really want to help us, you’ll shoot to kill. Otherwise they’ll just go on to be a bigger problem for us in the future.”

“Understood,” Becker said, echoing Poe’s earlier statement.

They loaded up the Range Rovers and passed a mostly silent trip to the anomaly site. Rey, Finn, and Poe were anxious, anyone could see that. Becker couldn’t blame them. They were so close to what they wanted but it could fall apart at any moment. Even if the anomaly did get them home, there was no guarantee they would arrive in the right time, or that they would be able to prevent the epic failure of their mission.

Back at the car park where it had all began, Connor shot questions rapidly at the ARC employees who had been monitoring the situation. He fiddled with his device and took readings and then a grin spread across his face. “I really think this is it. This is the one.”

“Oh, stars,” Rey breathed, reaching blindly for Finn’s hand. She took a moment to compose herself and then she said, “We won’t know what we’re walking into. If the First Order is still there, if we aren’t too late, they were close on our heels. It will get messy.”

In complete agreement, Poe said, “We’ll go first so we can cover the rest of you as you come through.”

That was sensible. They didn’t want to put anyone else in unnecessary danger so they were taking it upon themselves. “Agreed,” Becker said.

“Oh, can I just…” Jess hesitated and then she flung herself at Rey, squeezing her in a hug.

Rey seemed startled but she gripped Jess just as tightly. “Suppose this is goodbye, then.”

“Please be safe,” Jess said. “May the Force be with you? Is that what I should I say?”

Rey laughed and pulled back. “That’s perfect.”

Next Jess hugged Finn, and then Poe. “I know it couldn’t have been ideal for you but I’m truly glad I got to meet you, all of you.”

“Yeah, same goes for you,” Finn said.

“It was a pleasure, Jess,” Poe confirmed.

She stepped back from them all, twisting her hands together. “Please, please be safe,” she said again, and then they all stood and watched.

Rey, Finn, and Poe walked through the anomaly together, perfectly in unison, as they seemed to be in all things.

Becker exchanged a glance with Matt. “Give ‘em a minute?” Matt asked.

“A minute,” Becker said, checking his Mossberg. Long enough for them to scope out the situation but hopefully not long enough to get too badly into trouble.

He wished he had one of their bloody blasters. He hoped the guns he’d armed the team with would be able to do anything against stormtrooper armour.

“All right, move out,” Becker said, and stepped through first.

It was a green planet, open fields and distant woods. There was something… off, about the air, and the gravity, that made Becker think, _alien._ He was on another planet, in another galaxy.

And he was in a battle.

The stormtroopers looked just like they did in the films, white armour and helmets, and blaster fire zipped through the air. Their aim was better than he’d been led to believe from the films, unfortunately, as Poe rolled to avoid getting hit and Rey redirected a blast with her lightsaber.

_They’re beautiful,_ Becker thought, watching Rey, Poe, and Finn in action. They operated like a seamless unit, each uncannily aware of the other’s presence, and Rey… Rey was the most graceful, deadliest warrior Becker had ever seen.

He fired, once, then again, and a stormtrooper fell to his knees. Becker couldn’t tell if he’d killed him but he was down and that was all that mattered. Matt, Emily, Abby, and Connor spread out across the field behind him, finding targets and aiming.

“Stick to the original plan,” Poe was saying. “I’ll get to my ship, you get to the cargo.”

Finn took out a stormtrooper just as he raised his blaster to fire at Poe’s back. “We’ll cover you, go!”

Spotting the ARC team, Rey said, “Becker, you go with Poe.”

Poe protested, “I don’t need--”

“Go with Poe!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Becker said, pushing Poe into motion. He wasn’t about to argue with the scary woman holding a lightsaber.

They ran, firing shots behind them as they went. “This way!” Poe yelled.

Becker’s lungs felt oddly tight, like there wasn’t quite enough oxygen in the air, but there was nothing he could do about that. His feet pounded against the ground and they left the chaos of the fight behind them.

He wasn’t sure how long they’d been running before he saw the large, oddly familiar shape of an X-wing stretching out before him. The only thing was, it was _real._ And Poe apparently was the space equivalent of those people who liked to customise their cars. He’d probably named it and referred to it as a ‘she’ too.

“Bloody hell,” Becker said.

“She’s a beauty,” Poe said, looking at the X-wing with as much fondness as he did when he was looking at Rey or Finn. He clambered up a ladder on the side of the ship and retrieved a helmet before hopping back down. “They haven’t found her,” he said, talking to himself as he circled the X-wing. “She’s just like I left her, undamaged.”

Becker gazed at the ship with what felt like longing. He had never actually been that interested in flying but this ship was… If he could just… “Could I--”

Seeming to understand what he was getting at, Poe said, “Are you a pilot?”

“No, but I’ll become one if it means I get to go up in that.”

Poe slapped him on the back. “I hear you, pal.”

“I’m a quick learner?”

“Sorry, no can do. The cockpit’s cramped enough with just me, there’s no way you’ll fit, too.” Poe was looking around, as if searching for something, and then there was a strange electronic beeping sound coming from nearby.

An orange and white ball rolled into view, speeding towards Poe.

“Buddy!” Poe exclaimed, and it took Becker a second to realise he was talking to the ball. The droid. It only came up to about knee-height and Poe lowered himself down onto one knee when he addressed it, like adults did when they were speaking to children. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

The droid beeped nonsensically but Poe responded, “I’ll tell you all about it after we’re safe, but first we need to go help Rey and Finn. You ready?”

Even Becker could gather that the droid’s excited chirping was an affirmative response.

“Let’s go,” Poe said, putting his helmet on and springing back up the ladder.

The droid maneuvered into place and was lifted up into the ship while Poe called down to Becker from the cockpit, rapidly firing up the ship’s systems. “The _Falcon_ ’s due east of here, not far, just outside that grove of trees, you see? Wait there for us. We’ll find you.”

“Good luck,” Becker said, feeling useless. He didn’t like this, being left behind, left to wait while his friends fought, but there wasn’t anything else he could do. He couldn’t fly and he couldn’t help from here; by the time he reached them it would be all over, for better or worse.

Poe saluted as the cockpit closed over his head. The ship zoomed up into the sky only moments later.

Becker watched him soar off and then started walking. It was going to be fine. Everyone would be fine.

It took him maybe ten minutes to arrive at his destination, absolutely unmistakable. If Poe’s X-wing had been impressive, it had nothing on the _Millennium Falcon._

“Okay,” Becker said to himself, walking around the ship.“Okay.”

It was just… The _Millennium Falcon._ Becker wasn’t a big _Star Wars_ person, but… The _Millennium Falcon!_

Connor was going to piss himself.

Unfortunately Becker had no idea how to get inside and he wasn’t about to mess about with a spaceship, so he was forced to remain outside. He wondered how long he should wait, how much time he should give them before he said ‘screw it’ and went looking for them. Becker didn’t actually know where they were but he could retrace his steps to the anomaly site easily enough and from there he didn’t think it would be hard to track the others.

This waiting… Becker hated it.

Just as Becker was beginning to get overly antsy, Poe’s X-wing came back into view, soaring overhead. “Oh, thank fuck,” Becker breathed, and waited for Poe to land.

The droid – what had they called it? BB something? – was lowered to the ground from its position in Poe’s ship but Becker didn’t even wait for Poe to climb down the ladder before he started pestering him for answers. “What happened? Is everyone all right? Is my team safe? Did you win? Did you stop them?”

“Everyone’s fine,” Poe said, laughing a little, patting Becker’s shoulder. “It’s okay, they’re all okay. We completed our mission, thanks to you and your friends. The First Order wasn’t able to get what they came for.”

Becker made himself take a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly. He didn’t know what he would have done if he’d let his team get killed on an alien planet fighting a war that wasn’t theirs.

“They’re all on their way,” Poe said. “Just give them some time.”

Becker sat down in the dirt, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He hadn’t realised how scared he’d been until the enormous relief spurred by Poe’s reassurances had set in.

Poe sat down next to him, hugging his knees to his chest. His wavy hair was damp with sweat and mussed from the helmet but otherwise he looked happy and unharmed. “Sucks being the one left behind, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” Becker agreed. “Doesn’t happen to me often.”

“I expect not. But I think it must happen to Jess a lot.”

Becker looked at him in surprise.

Poe was sort of half-smiling at him. “Word of advice? Don’t wait too long. The thing is, you think you’re protecting people but really you’re just standing in their way. And you’re keeping yourself from being happy.”

“Pretty sure I didn’t ask for advice.”

Poe raised his hands. “Hey, don’t mind me, I just say what I think. But seriously,” he said, reaching over to grip Becker’s forearm. “You’ll only regret it if you don’t try.”

There didn’t seem to be anything else to say so Becker remained quiet. The silence stretched for a few minutes until Poe started talking again, just chatter to fill the silence. Becker thought that that was just who he was, the sort of person who liked to put everyone else at ease. A bit like Jess, really.

He even talked to the droid like it was a person. Becker didn’t have a bloody clue what the thing was saying but Poe spoke to it like they were good friends.

Becker heard the others return before he saw them, the sound of laughter and easy conversation. Becker scrambled up to his feet, in time to see Connor’s mouth literally drop open at the sight of the _Millennium Falcon._

“It’s… That’s… Bloody hell,” Connor said, stopping in place and gaping. “Pinch me, Abby, do it, I need to know this is real.”

Abby was laughing at him but she obliged.

“Ow! You didn’t have to do it that hard,” Connor protested, rubbing his arm. Then a grin spread across his face. “The _Millennium Falcon_! Can I go inside it? Oh, God, please say yes. I can’t just look at the _Millennium Falcon_ and not go in it, it’ll be the biggest regret of my life!”

“We’ll do you one better,” Rey said, looking as proud of the _Falcon_ as Poe had been of his X-wing. “We’ll take you up in it.”

Connor was holding onto Abby as if to stop himself from collapsing. He seemed to have lost the ability for speech.

“All of you,” Poe said. “It’ll get you back to the anomaly quicker. After what you’ve done for us, no one wants to see you cut off from your own world.”

“Good idea,” Becker said. “It’s nice here and everything, but quite honestly, I wouldn’t like to stay.”

“No offense,” Matt added.

“None taken,” Finn said. “We didn’t want to stay on your planet either.”

“To be literally stuck on one planet, it’s like a nightmare,” Poe said, though he was smiling to show he was only teasing. “You guys go on, I’ll stay with my baby,” he said, glancing towards the X-wing.

Becker extended his hand to Poe. “Good luck,” he said, for lack of anything better to say. He wasn’t going to say, ‘May the Force be with you.’ He just wasn’t.

Poe pulled him into a hug instead. “I hope you’ll take my advice. It’s good advice, I promise.”

Becker felt a smile tug at his lips. “Yeah, okay, if you say so.”

Poe went around hugging everyone then, and not even Matt seemed to mind. Becker found himself wondering what it would be like to be like Poe, the kind of person who could make friends with anyone.

But that was a pointless train of thought because Becker just wasn’t like that. He never had been and he never would be.

He hung back and let the others walk up the ramp into the _Falcon_ ahead of him. He looked back once at Poe, standing there with his droid, his hand raised in a wave, and then walked into the ship.

It felt surreal. That was the only way to describe it. Perhaps it was a bit strange that standing in the _Millennium Falcon_ was what truly made it sink in that he was literally in _Star Wars,_ and not the whole ‘getting shot at by stormtroopers on an alien planet’ thing, but it was. He had seen the insides of this ship on the telly as a child and now here he was, actually _in_ it, and it wasn’t a film set. It was real.

“You can come up to the cockpit if you want,” Rey was saying, “as long as you don’t get in my way.”

“Really, don’t get in her way, she shouts,” Finn warned.

Connor actually pushed Emily out of the way in his rush to follow Rey and Finn.

“Sorry about him,” Abby said, in fond exasperation, but Emily only waved her off.

“This is probably the greatest day of his life,” she said with a small smile. “Who am I to begrudge him that?”

Becker stood behind the others in the cockpit, watching Rey pull levers and press buttons. He stared through the – windshield? window? what would you call it? – as they rose into the air, more gently than any take-off Becker had been a part of. Below him he could see Poe and the droid and the X-wing and then they were gone as the ship wheeled around. Rey handled the ship with a smooth, easy hand, apparently as good a pilot as she was a Jedi.

“Shame we can’t leave atmosphere,” Connor lamented. “Or… or could we?”

“No,” Abby said, while Finn snorted.

Connor’s face fell.

“Abby’s right,” Matt said. “We can’t take the risk. No time for a joyride; we have no idea how long the anomaly will stay open.”

Even Becker had to admit he was slightly disappointed that he was going to miss out on what very well could be his only opportunity to go into space, but there were things waiting for him back on Earth that he didn’t want to leave behind. People.

It seemed like they were barely in the air at all before Rey swerved in a wide loop before the anomaly. She brought the _Millennium Falcon_ down in the open area in front of the anomaly, landing so lightly that Becker felt himself sway on his feet only the slightest bit.

“There you go. Only way to travel,” Rey said, smiling at them.

Connor hugged her before she could protest, saying, “Thank you so much, you’re amazing.”

Rey patted his back. “You’re welcome. Least I could do after you got us here.”

“You’ll never know how grateful we are,” Finn added, shaking Becker’s hand.

They said their goodbyes quickly and went down the landing ramp, Rey and Finn waiting at the top and watching. Connor gave the _Millennium Falcon_ one last longing look before he steeled himself and walked through the anomaly. Becker let them all go ahead of him, making sure they made it through, before lifting his hand in a wave.

He walked through the anomaly and set his feet back on Earth.

-

That evening, Becker stopped to speak to Jess before heading home. He felt oddly let-down, almost like how he had felt as a child the day after Christmas, like all the fun was over and now it was back to dull and ordinary. He was almost surprised by how much he missed Finn, Poe, and Rey.

“Seems lonely around here now,” Jess said, tone wistful. “I hate the idea that we’ll never even be able to know what happened to them.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“But you can’t know that.”

“No. But sometimes hope is all you have.”

“I suppose,” Jess said, her chin in her hand as she gazed sightlessly at her monitors, expression crestfallen.

Becker thought of Poe and how happy he had been around Rey and Finn. He thought of regrets and missed chances.

He looked at Jess, sweet and pretty and sad.

“Let’s get out of here,” he suggested. “Let me take you somewhere, dinner, drinks, dessert, whatever you want.”

Jess blinked wide eyes at him. “Are you serious?”

This was a mistake. He shouldn’t have said anything. Bugger. “Um. Only if you want me to be?”

“Becker, are you asking me on a date?”

“Depends on what your answer would be.”

Her face lit up as she smiled. “It would be yes, obviously,” she said, and kissed Becker’s cheek, her lips soft against his skin.

Becker’s skin flushed and he felt his lips curve into a smile of his own. He said a silent thank you to Poe Dameron and wished that wherever they were, Poe, Finn, and Rey were as happy as Becker was right in this moment.

**_End_ **


End file.
